Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

New Year's Day 2021. The year turns and the turning is not celebration but relief — relief that 2020 is over, the worst year of my adult life, worse than the year Héctor was murdered, worse than the year Papi died, because this year the loss was not one person but the whole world, the whole structure of gathering and feeding and touching and being together that is the architecture of my life collapsed, and rebuilding from collapse takes longer than mourning a single death. I know this. I rebuilt after Héctor. I rebuilt after María. I will rebuild after this. The rebuilding is what I do. The building materials are always the same: rice, beans, garlic, love.

I made the New Year's Day arroz con salchichas — the tradition, Mami's recipe, the simplest dish in my repertoire and the one that tastes most like January 1st. Eduardo ate it at the kitchen table, reading the paper — a real paper, the Hartford Courant, delivered to the door, because Eduardo is the last man in America who reads a physical newspaper and I love this about him the way I love his ironed shirts and his sensible shoes, the anachronisms that make him Eduardo.

I FaceTimed David, who was in Brooklyn with James. They were making black-eyed peas — James's family tradition, Southern, a New Year's Day food that James grew up with in Queens where his mother, who is Chinese-American, married his father, who is Black, and the kitchen was a negotiation between cultures the way David and James's kitchen is a negotiation between cultures. David served the black-eyed peas next to rice and beans. I said, David, that plate is two traditions having a conversation. He said, That's what love looks like, Mami. He was right. Love looks like two dishes on one plate, side by side, neither dominating, both nourishing. I filed this thought under Things My Son Taught Me, which is a file that grows larger every year.

I don’t always make arroz con salchichas for guests — some days the rice is just for us, and the sauce that follows later in the week is for everyone else, the pot I keep going on the back burner when the house starts filling up again. This homemade spaghetti sauce is that pot. It has the same logic as Mami’s kitchen: garlic first, always garlic first, then patience, then tomatoes, then time. It isn’t Puerto Rican and it isn’t Southern — it’s the third dish on the plate, the one that says you are welcome here no matter where you come from, and that felt right for a January when we needed more of that, not less.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef (85% lean) or sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1/2 cup water or dry red wine
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for serving

Instructions

Build the base. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 6–8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more, until fragrant but not browned.
Brown the meat. Add the ground beef or sausage to the pot. Break it apart with a wooden spoon and cook over medium-high heat until no pink remains, about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat if needed, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pot for flavor.
Add the tomatoes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, letting it caramelize slightly against the bottom of the pot. Pour in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water or wine. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom.
Season and simmer. Add the basil, oregano, sugar, and red pepper flakes if using. Season with salt and black pepper. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover partially and simmer for at least 30 minutes — 45 minutes is better, 1 hour is best. Stir every 10 minutes.
Taste and finish. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. If it’s too acidic, add a pinch more sugar. If it’s too thick, add a splash of water. Serve over cooked pasta, topped with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce — The Building Materials Are Always the Same